Why are Holland's fees and taxes so much more?

[FinelyRetired]

18 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

When we did 2 full  panama canal transits the port fees & taxes were way lower  than todays  port fees & taxes  .  We also did 5 Alaska cruises & I can tell  that the port fees & taxes are much higher  than those past cruises  .Seems to me port  fees &  taxes have gone up all over  .As the cruise industry expands , Cities & or countries are making their port fees & taxes higher as well  . These fees will not go down unless  there is a dramatic decline in  people cruising 

 

  

I wonder if size of ships matters? Some really big ones now.

[caribill]

20 hours ago, FinelyRetired said:

I wonder if size of ships matters? Some really big ones now.

 

see earlier post as shown below

 

21 hours ago, BillB48 said:

 

The tolls are determined by the revenue generating space on the ship.  Tolls for a pure container ship are determined by, the total capacity of containers the ship can carry.  The capacity of a container ship is expressed in TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units).  The largest container ship that can use the original locks is around 5000 TEUs, for the new locks 15,000 TEUs.  The second part of the the toll calculation is the number of loaded containers that are on board the ship.  For most passenger ships the toll is calculated on the total number of passenger berths.  It was pointed out earlier the ship pays for all the berths, occupied or not. There are other charges that can be included that may not be actual tolls such as reservation for a particular day, daylight transit guarantee and tugs.  The list goes on, but those mentioned are the bigger ones.

 

I'm sure it won't come as a surprise, but tolls are going up in January.  So see it soon while it is still "cheap"!

 

[iancal]

We do not pay any attention to the taxes and fees.  We compare ships/cruise lines/itineraries by the bottom line inclusive of fare, taxes, etc, gratuities, and net of TA OBC’s.   

 

We only care care about the bottom line.

[TAD2005]

Remember, the Panama Canal opened the new sets of locks a few years ago, and I'm sure that they want to see a quick return on the country's investment.  So canal passage tolls are going to be much higher that they were years ago.   Also cruise ships agree to pay a premium price for a scheduled time for their daylight passage through the canal.  Cargo ships lay in wait on either side of the canal to be called for their passage.   Cruise ships have a guaranteed passage time, and that luxury costs money.   After all, no cruise ship passenger will be very pleased starting their once-in-a-lifetime Panama Canal passage at 10:00 pm in the dark.

[Shih-tzu]

We received some $$ back after our Panama section of our cruise.  I believe they take the bill the ship receives and then determine how much it cost per passenger and refund the difference.  I suspect higher port fees are being charged by the port authorities based on the fact that ships are getting larger and larger and there will have to be a capital expenditure for updating facilities.   Take Vancouver for example.  The megaships coming on line won't fit under the Lions Gate Bridge.   (One of the Norwegian ships clears the bridge by only 5 feet at low tide).  The port now has to look at creating berths in another area of the lower mainland.  That's going to cost a lot of $$$.